What Never Should Be: New Beginnings
by blucougar57
Summary: The first follow-on story from "What Never Should Be". Jack and Ianto discover that running a secret alien intelligence agency on their own isn't as easy as they might have imagined. AU. M/M.
1. A Weevil Called Brad

A/N: _This is the start of what I anticipate will be a series of stories to follow on from _**What Never Should Be**_. Most of them will only be a fraction the length of the original story - perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 words long on average. There will be some compliance to the show's canon, but please remember that this is still AU. Therefore there is likely to be some variance in the characterisations and the way some characters behave/react._

_I am aware that _**What Never Should Be**_ had the honour of making it onto the "Torchwood Bad Fic" Community. I'll be interested to see whether any of these follow-up stories suffer the same fate....  
_

* * *

Ianto Jones was exhausted. Absolutely, bloody bone tired, and yet here he was for the fourth night in a row, chasing long-toothed monsters with bad posture and even worse skin conditions through the streets of Cardiff. Ianto wanted to scream. Just stop, lift his head to the sky and scream until he was hoarse. How in the name of all things sacred had he ended up here? A moment later, the answer to that very question spoke into his ear via the Bluetooth earpiece that he wore on his left ear.

"_Ianto? Where the hell are you? Talk to me, damn it!_"

"Here…" Ianto answered breathlessly. He could barely speak, but at the same time he also knew that failing to answer would send his companion spiralling into a panic. Then, he'd be in for yet another lecture about maintaining adequate communication when they got back to the Hub when all Ianto wanted to do was to go home, curl up in bed and sleep.

"_Where is 'here'?_"

Ianto paused just long enough to get his bearings.

"Bute Park, south end. I, uh… I seem to have lost it."

Truer words, he thought ruefully.

"_Well, I'm north-west of you… about a hundred yards, and I seem to have found it_…"

A deafening roar through the earpiece very nearly shattered Ianto's eardrum, and he yanked the device off his ear as quickly as he could. Even holding it in his hand, though, he could hear the sound of a pained scream on the other end. Galvanised, he broke into a run, all the while praying that he was headed in the right direction.

It seemed he had been closer than estimated. He came through the trees not that far away to find his companion on the ground with the weevil on top of him, biting deeply into his neck. Forgetting about the spray attached to his belt, and the stun gun holstered at his side, Ianto grabbed a heavy stick from the ground and belted it over the weevil's back to draw its attention.

"Hey!" he yelled, hitting the beast as hard as he could.

The weevil uttered another angry roar, its attention finally diverted, and clambered off Jack to throw itself at Ianto. The young man grunted as he suddenly found himself in a wrestling match with the beast. His heart was in his throat as he struggled to keep those claws and teeth away from himself. Exhaustion was starting to take its toll, though, and Ianto quickly realised with dismay that his strength was waning. He couldn't hold off the weevil for much longer, and if it had succeeded in killing his companion…

Ianto gasped as the weevil was suddenly knocked away from him, to the ground. He stumbled but managed to keep his feet under him. Assured that he wasn't going to fall, Ianto turned to watch as Jack struggled once more with the alien creature. For a brief moment, he thought he would need to intervene once more, but then Jack got one hand free to grab his own canister of weevil spray, and gave the beast a hefty dose right in its ugly face. He had a black hood over its head seconds later, and finally managed to inject it with a heavy sedative for transport back to the Hub.

"Thanks for the assist," Jack said dryly as he got awkwardly to his feet. Ianto rolled his eyes.

"Don't be sarcastic. It doesn't suit you. How's the neck? You were bleeding pretty badly."

Jack grimaced as Ianto gently peeled back his collar to view the injury.

"It's nothing. I've had worse from shaving."

This time, Ianto's eyebrows shot up in bemusement.

"That's hardly an appropriate comparison, Jack. Might I point out, you don't shave?"

Jack shrugged as he toed the weevil carefully to ensure it was out for the count.

"Semantics. You know what I mean. It'll probably be healed by the time we get back to the Hub."

"Maybe," Ianto conceded, "but you will still have lost a fair amount of blood by the time we do."

The Captain paused, looking back over his shoulder at the young Welshman.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say that this wouldn't have happened if we recruited other people! We're both exhausted, Jack, and don't try to deny it. I know you're just about as knackered as I am. We've been doing this for six nights now, without a break! And don't try telling me that you don't sleep, because I know damned well that you do."

Jack's jaw tightened.

"Can we at least get the weevil back to the Hub before we start this argument up again?"

For a long moment, Ianto sorely wanted to take his stun gun to Jack. He swallowed the urge, though, and eventually conceded with a terse nod.

"Fine."

He stalked off back in the direction of their SUV, leaving Jack behind to struggle under the weight of the weevil. He knew he was being childish, but he couldn't help it. Jack's stubbornness had been a blessing when he had still been recovering from the aftermath of Torchwood's inhumane treatment of him. Many times, through sheer force of will, Jack had kept from quitting and retreating completely into his own mind where not even the Doctor would have been able to reach him. Now, though, that stubbornness was proving to be less a blessing, and more of a nightmare.

"Ianto! Damn it, will you wait?"

Only when Ianto was within sight of the SUV did he finally turn back to stare at Jack. He was on the cusp of losing his temper completely, and the only thing that kept him from doing just that was the look on Jack's face. It was the same look he always wore when he knew he'd done something to make Ianto angry with him, and it was a look that never failed to wear down Ianto's emotional defences.

"You're angry," Jack said softly. It was almost funny, watching him standing there with the unconscious body of a weevil slung over his broad shoulders, dressed in his personal choice of 1940's period clothing for an off-duty military man – complete with army greatcoat – and sporting a pout that would have put a three year-old to shame.

"I'm not angry," Ianto told him. He was really, _really_ not in the mood for this sort of mind game, even if it was unintentional on Jack's part. "I'm just tired, Jack. I can't keep doing this…" He faltered, realising too late just what it was that he'd said, and a look at Jack told him that Jack had taken his words at face value. "Jack, no, I didn't mean…"

Jack stumbled, and the weevil slipped from his shoulders, landing unnoticed in the dirt with an unceremonious thud.

"Please, don't leave me," Jack pled. Gone was the childish pout, and in its place was a look of pure panic. Ianto strode towards him and pulled him into a fierce hug. He could feel Jack shaking in his arms, and struggling to suppress miserable sobs. Gradually, Jack's arms folded around him, and Ianto fought the urge to cough as he found himself caught up in what he had affectionately come to call a massive 'Jack-hug'.

"I'm not going anywhere, I promise," he murmured, rubbing his hands soothingly up and down Jack's spine. "Don't panic on me, love. I'm staying right here with you. I promised you I would, didn't I?"

Slowly, the tremors and the sobs subsided, but Ianto didn't try to extricate himself from Jack's embrace. To do so would have only triggered a fresh panic attack, and that was the last thing Ianto wanted to do. So, he waited and eventually his patience was rewarded, and Jack's arms slipped away from around his body, releasing him from the bear hug. While Ianto tried somewhat pointlessly to straighten out his rumpled clothes, Jack just stood there looking miserable and all-together sorry for himself.

"I'm an idiot, aren't I?" he asked dolefully. Ianto had to smile, although it was tinged with sadness and regret. It was truly heartbreaking that after nearly six months of running the Torchwood Three Hub on their own, Jack still retained all of his old insecurities and fears.

"Yes, but you're a lovable idiot. Now, what do you say we get our guest back to the Hub before she wakes up?"

Jack nodded and, rubbing briefly at his reddened eyes, he stepped in to help Ianto lift the deadweight of the weevil up and into the back of the SUV.

* * *

"So, what are we going to call him?" Jack wondered once they had the creature secured in one of the vault cells. Ianto glanced amusedly at Jack. It was an absurd question, and he personally could not see the point in it.

"Why should we call it anything?" he asked. "And how, exactly, do you know it's a 'him'? I swear, Jack, if you tell me you've shagged one of these things…"

To Ianto's quiet amusement, Jack actually reddened slightly at the accusation, and shook his head vigorously in answer.

"No. Claws, canines and scaly skin aren't a turn-on for me. I don't know exactly _how _I know if it's a male or a female, except that his growl is kind of low-pitched."

Ianto couldn't help it. He laughed out loud, and the sound came out tinged with a touch of hysteria as a result of his exhaustion.

"You're designating gender on the basis of the pitch and tone of its growl? That's brilliant, that is."

"Don't call him it."

Ianto faltered, taken aback by the sudden tension in Jack's voice.

"What…?"

"I said, don't call him it. He's not an 'it'. He might not be human, but he's not an 'it'."

Slowly, Ianto caught his breath, and realised his mistake. Reaching out, he touched Jack's hand lightly in apology, and was grateful when Jack grasped it willingly.

"I'm sorry, Jack. You are right. All right, then. What do you want to call him?"

"Brad," Jack said abruptly, and Ianto raised an eyebrow as he stared at the unconscious, long-toothed creature in the holding cell.

"And you've come to that conclusion how…?"

"Well, I figured if we find a girl weevil, we could call her Janet, and then we'd have Brad and Janet."

Again, Ianto didn't even try to hide his laughter.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show last weekend! Bloody hell, Jack, are you serious? Brad and Janet?"

Jack shrugged, looking utterly serious, and somewhat bewildered by Ianto's mirth.

"It's better than Magenta and Riffraff, isn't it? Although, I suppose, if we wind up with two males, we could always call them Rocky and Frankenfurter…"

The younger man nearly choked, and only just managed to stop himself from laughing yet again when he caught a glimpse of the utterly sincere expression on Jack's face. There it was – that look of childlike innocence that Jack had never quite rid himself of in the wake of his liberation from captivity, and the recovery of his memories. Jack wanted everyone to believe he was back to being the same brash, carefree, flirty and sexy bloke that he had been prior to the events on Satellite Five. However, the truth was that a big part of him had been permanently affected by the way his personality had developed in those months after Ianto's promotion to Secure Archives.

He was never going to be exactly the same man, and Ianto knew that inwardly he had accepted that. However, he still tended to put on a show that suggested otherwise, and Ianto was disinclined to stop him. If nothing else, it provided Jack with an emotional shield against everything out there that might otherwise hurt him.

"You're right," he conceded, stifling any further urge to laugh. "Brad and Janet is much better than Riffraff and Magenta. All right, then. Brad it is, but you'll excuse me if I hope that we don't find a Janet altogether too soon."

Jack clapped his hands together, and grinned.

"Great. Let's go eat."

With that, he bounded back up the stairs, leaving a bemused Ianto in his wake.

* * *

For nearly six months now, Jack and Ianto had run the Torchwood Three Hub on their own, with no back-up aside from a couple of well-timed check-up visits from the Doctor – one of which had coincided with a Hoix infestation at the local Saturday morning fish market, and the other with Jack falling into the recently acquired coffee machine and smashing it to bits. Both times the Doctor had come to the rescue and, in the second instance, saved Jack from suffering Ianto's considerable wrath by demonstrating that his sonic screwdriver could do much more than put up shelves in a pinch.

Ianto had been placated, but Jack still had nightmares about it, on occasion.

For nearly six months, they'd made do with just the two of them, and Jack in particular had been more than happy with that. So had Ianto, if he was being completely honest with himself, but the steadily increasing rift activity was starting to wear thin on them both.

Ianto understood Jack's aversion to bringing more people into the Torchwood fold. He himself wasn't terribly thrilled with the idea of expanding Torchwood, but he also knew that they could not go on with just the two of them in this way. It was going to end up getting them both killed. It had nearly done so tonight, and while Jack would come back, he himself wouldn't. Ianto didn't particularly want to throw that unpleasant little truth in Jack's face, but he would if he was left with no other alternative.

They _needed_ more people, and that was all there was to it.

Of course, it also didn't help that there were some places within the Hub where Jack simply refused to go, which meant that Ianto was doing rather more than his fair share of the workload. Depositing the newly christened 'Brad' in the cells tonight had been an exception for the Captain. As a general rule, Jack avoided going anywhere near the cells.

Ianto understood Jack's reticence. It was in one of those very cells that Jack had initially been locked up by Emily Holroyd and Alice Guppy, after they captured him that very first time in 1899. It was in a similar cell that Jack had been left to rote, and eventually degenerate into the animalistic state that Ianto had found him in just over a year ago. Even now, Ianto was quietly amazed by the incredible transformation Jack had undergone. It didn't change the fact, though, that if Jack was going to keep refusing to even consider hiring more people, then Ianto just couldn't see how they could continue on.

He found himself eyeing the office Jack had claimed for himself, while he prepared a platter of sandwiches and fruit for them both, along with fresh coffee. According to both the records and Jack's memory, that had been the office of each successive head of Torchwood Three with the last being Alex Hopkins, the unfortunate soul whose mind had been warped by a Trillian pendant. It had given him the bleakest possible view of Earth's future and, in a wave of manic depression and insanity, he had killed every member of his team, and finally himself. It had happened right on the turn of the new century, and apparently the bodies had lain there for some weeks before anyone from Torchwood One had realised anything was wrong.

Ianto felt a rush of sympathy for the dead man. Jack had apparently still been a prisoner deep within the bowels of Torchwood Three when Hopkins took over. According to an old journal that Ianto had founding a hidden compartment in Jack's chosen office, Hopkins had been horrified by Jack's ill-treatment, and had begun to do what Ianto had eventually succeeded at. He had tried to bring Jack back from the brink of madness by treating him with a kindness that the immortal man likely hadn't experienced for one hundred years.

He might just have succeeded, too, Ianto mused, had Torchwood One not been informed of 'the freak's' presence, and demanded his transfer to Canary Wharf in London. Ianto couldn't help but wonder whether Hopkins might still have gone on his insane, murderous rampage if he had still had Jack there to care for. It was just one more thing that he had to resign himself to never knowing.

Jack, for his part, had vague memories of Hopkins. Some nights, whilst cuddling in the living room of their home, under the skylight, Jack talked quietly about distant and clouded memories of a man with kind eyes and a gentle voice, who had dared to venture close enough to clean his wounds and wash his face; a man who had treated him as more than simply a freakish phenomenon to be experimented on and tortured at a whim.

He didn't remember all that clearly in the waking hours of the day, but being back within the walls of Torchwood Three resulted in Jack having vivid dreams when he did manage to sleep. Ianto always knew when Jack dreamed of Hopkins, as opposed to anyone else to do with Torchwood Three, because when he dreamed of Hopkins, Jack _didn't_ wake up screaming in terror.

Ianto sighed inwardly as he poured coffee into large mugs for each of them. There had been some serious pros and cons to Jack taking control of the Cardiff Hub, and of Torchwood overall. Among the arguments for was the hope that giving Jack control of the very institute that had caused him so much pain would go at least some way towards allaying what fears he still had of the Institute. It was also the ultimate means of giving him immunity from UNIT, even beyond the Queen's order of protection. While most of the UNIT Chiefs had come to accept Jack in his new role, there were certain elements that clearly still would have preferred to see the Captain locked up once more, 'for his safety and that of others'.

Ianto still chuckled to himself when he recalled the looks on the faces of the UNIT Chiefs, the day that he and Jack had walked into UNIT Headquarters in London for a post-Canary Wharf meeting on Earth's defences. He knew without a doubt that at least two of them would have liked to have had Jack trussed up and thrown in a cell right then and there. They might have actually done so, had the Doctor and the Prime Minister not been there to provide support.

The Chiefs had been told, in no uncertain terms, that Captain Jack Harkness had been appointed the new Director of Torchwood, and as such had the complete support and protection of the Royal Family. She had even gone so far as to rewrite Torchwood's original charter. The Doctor was no long listed as an enemy of the Crown, to be captured and studied, but rather as a protector of the Earth. Jack's name had been immortalised on the charter as well, as the designated Director of Torchwood for as long as he wished to remain on Earth. The move effectively gave Jack complete immunity against any underhanded tactics that certain UNIT Generals might have tried.

They did not even have the option of attacking Jack through himself, Ianto mused with equal parts relief and amusement. The Queen had extended her order of protection to him, as well – not only as Jack's companion and a survivor of Canary Wharf in his own right, but also as Jack's first (and as yet only) official employee, and second-in-command of Torchwood Three.

That was something that Ianto was particularly grateful for, knowing as he did that he was rather high on the list of people that UNIT would have liked to bring in for interrogation. Now, though, UNIT could not touch so much as a hair on either of their heads without bringing down the wrath of both the Crown and the Doctor on themselves. Torchwood was, once again, untouchable.

Ianto smiled faintly to himself. Untouchable, but not unaccountable. The Doctor had promised to look in on them from time to time to see how they were managing, and had also assured them both that he would come whenever they needed his help. They only needed to call. It was that sincere promise more than anything else, Ianto suspected, that had made Jack willing to let the Time Lord go on his way - that, and the fact that despite all of his original protests, Ianto had finally decided to stay with Jack after all.

The Welshman knew he would never forget the look of sheer joy on Jack's face the day that he had made up his mind that his place was by Jack's side. Just seeing the way Jack lit up had warmed Ianto all the way through, and he knew he'd made the right choice. It was no longer just that Jack couldn't live without Ianto. Now, it was equally that Ianto discovered that he couldn't – and, more to the point, didn't want to – live without Jack.

It wasn't the way he'd originally envisaged things working out, but he was happy nonetheless. The work had proved to be hard and exhausting, but they were actually helping people and saving lives. It was how Ianto had imagined Torchwood One had operated, until he'd had his eyes opened to the truth.

"Ianto!"

The young man smiled wryly to himself at Jack's bellowed call. There were some days that he sorely missed the innocent gaze and the soft, tentative 'Yan toe?', but for the most part he quietly rejoiced in Jack's recovery. Loading the tray carefully with their supper, and adding a plate of Jack's favourite chocolate biscuits as an afterthought, Ianto headed up to the Captain's office.

"You're an angel," Jack said happily, reaching eagerly for the mug that Ianto held out to him. Ianto uttered a throaty chuckle.

"Hardly, Jack."

Jack regarded Ianto over the rim of the mug as he took a sip.

"Yes, you are. You're my angel. I love you, Ianto."

It was said with complete sincerity, and Ianto felt his face flush in response.

"I love you, too, Jack. You know I do. But that doesn't change the fact that we need to talk about this situation."

Jack's expression tightened, and he thumped the mug down on the desk in a display of childish irritation. Coffee splashed up over the side of the mug and splattered over Jack's hand, causing him to yelp in pain as the hot milk scalded him.

"You daft sod," Ianto murmured. He grabbed the handkerchief from his pocket and quickly mopped up the spilt beverage from both Jack's hand and the desktop, and then ushered Jack out of the office and into the nearby kitchenette.

"I know, that was stupid," Jack mumbled, managing to look both annoyed and embarrassed. Ianto rolled his eyes as he held Jack's burnt hand under the cold, running water.

"Only in that you managed to burn yourself. If you want to spill coffee, then that's your choice, but you're the one missing out. Again, though, it doesn't change the face that we need to talk."

"I don't _want_ to hire anyone else," Jack snapped irritably. "I just want it to be us. Just us. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Ianto assured him gently. "I understand, Jack. Really, I do. But I meant what I said earlier. We can't continue on like this. We need others to help balance out the workload. Jack, please just hear me out. I've been doing a bit of research, and I think I have a few possibilities."

He could see from the tightening in Jack's jaw that the Captain was less than happy. On the other hand, he was at least listening, Ianto conceded. Maybe, just maybe, there was still hope.

"What possibilities?" Jack asked finally, if somewhat sourly. Ianto wanted to cheer, and had to make a real effort to clamp own on his own enthusiasm. Half the battle was in getting Jack to agree to at least look over the options, and he was sure that once Jack did that, then he would be much more open to bringing in more people. Especially, Ianto thought wryly, once he saw the file of one person in particular that Ianto had in mind.

"Come back to your office," Ianto told him. "I'll bring the files in, and we can look through them together. I've narrowed it down to perhaps half a dozen potentials. I think you might be interested in one in particular."

Jack's eyebrows lifted slightly, showing his curiosity had been roused, but he said nothing as he retreated to his office once more. Ianto hurried to get the files that he'd had stashed away for the last week and a half, and headed back to the office. Seating himself carefully on the edge of the desk, Ianto couldn't help but glance around the office as he spread several files out in front of Jack.

The office was looking markedly different from when they had first moved into the base four months ago. Then, it had been dusty, and stark in its furnishings – less an office, and more of a… He refused to use the word 'cell'. He wouldn't even think it, given Jack's past. But that was what it had reminded him of when they'd first seen it, and he knew Jack had thought similarly. It had been particularly telling in the way that Jack had avoided going into the office at all to begin with. It wasn't until Ianto had furnished it with a comfortable old couch obtained from a local charity shop, and many other items that they'd collected during a day's shopping in Cardiff, that Jack had been willing to spend more than just a few cursory minutes inside.

Then there had been the gift from the Doctor. It was a piece of coral from the TARDIS herself, given to Jack with love and reassurance that he would never again be forgotten or abandoned. The gift was especially significant in that it would, over time, grow and eventually become a TARDIS in its own right. The deeper meaning of that had been initially lost on Ianto, but not on Jack. A TARDIS was a sentient ship that could live on for as long as its owner survived. In Jack's case, that would effectively forever. The Doctor and the TARDIS had given Jack the gift of companionship, ensuring that no matter what happened, he would never truly be alone again.

Ianto had been both impressed and relieved by the magnitude of the gift, while Jack had openly wept and almost hugged the Doctor into his next regeneration.

The precious piece of coral now sat under a perpetually burning heat lamp on Jack's new desk, a slightly-odd looking decoration that somehow didn't look the least bit out of place in the midst of an innocuous collection of Penfold's brand stationery.

The finishing touch, though, and perhaps the one that both amused and saddened Ianto at the same time, was the appearance of Jack's now slightly ragged toy dog on the desk. Ianto had almost forgotten about the toy, until he'd come in a couple of mornings after the Doctor had left, to find it sitting there in between the coral and the blotter. Jack hadn't said a word, and went to great pains to pretend that it wasn't even there. Ianto, however, hadn't missed the slightly panicked look in Jack's eyes when he picked it up to look it over.

In the end, Ianto had left the toy where Jack had placed it. He hadn't had the heart to get rid of it whilst they'd still been safe on the TARDIS, and he had no intention of doing so now. If Jack felt even just a little bit better for having it nearby, then who was he to dispute it?

"Not this one," Jack said, his voice jolting Ianto out of his moment of reverie. A glance down showed that Jack had dismissed the file of one Desk Sergeant Kathy Swanson, who was with the local Cardiff Constabulary, and apparently looking at a potential promotion to Detective Sergeant in the near future. "I don't want anyone from the Cardiff Police in here. Too much trouble with local connections. That, and they're all too bloody nosy for their own good."

Ianto swallowed a snicker. That was definitely a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Jack glowered up at him, unamused.

"I'm not kidding, Ianto. They're a bunch of bleeding hearts, and some of the decisions we might have to make aren't going to be pleasant or popular. I don't need some sanctimonious upstart telling us how to run this place."

Ianto laid a hand over Jack's and squeezed lightly.

"We've already been down this path once, Jack. Don't knock the bleeding hearts, because that's what I was labelled for wanting to help you."

Jack winced at the unwanted reminder, and Ianto quietly wanted to kick himself for bringing it up, but at the same time he knew Jack needed to be reminded that having a heart was part and parcel of being human, and that he was, indeed, still human himself.

"I know," Jack mumbled. "I just… I don't trust them."

Ianto rubbed Jack's shoulder soothingly. He knew what Jack meant, and he wasn't just referring to the Cardiff Police. Another side effect of his time in captivity was Jack's innate mistrust of all authority. With the exceptions of the Doctor and the Queen, Jack regarded all levels of authority with a deep suspicion. Ianto had hoped that that suspicion might have subsided somewhat with Jack himself now being in a position of authority, but it seemed it wasn't so.

He decided to take the prudent option, at least for the time being, and not push the subject.

"All right, then. No police. We do need a medic, though, and we definitely need someone who has exceptional computer and tech skills."

"Someone who can hack computer?" Jack wondered. "Because I can do that."

"I know you can, love, but the point is you shouldn't need to. And not just hack a computer, either. Someone who can hack _any_ computer. I think I've found the very person, too. Look at this."

He opened one of the files to reveal the picture of a young woman of Asian appearance.

"Her name is Toshiko Sato. Up until a month and a half ago, she was with a top British technology firm, and she was one of their best and brightest. Top level graduate, IQ off the charts… The works."

Jack frowned as he eyed the front page of the file, where it listed the young woman's qualifications.

"What happened a month and a half ago?"

Ianto paused, searching for the right words. This was where Jack might react badly, and he knew he needed to tread carefully.

"She was arrested for stealing state secrets. Apparently she stole the plans for a sonic modulator from the company."

"A sonic modulator?" Jack echoed in surprise. "Really? I didn't know plans like that existed in this time."

"Well, they do, but they were shelved because they were wrong, and no one could figure out how to fix them."

Slowly, the wonder and curiosity in Jack's face cleared, and he frowned at the picture in front of him.

"She stole plans like that, you think she can be trusted here? Ianto…"

"Hear me out," Ianto urged him. "Please, Jack. Her mother was kidnapped, and held hostage. Miss Sato was told to steal the plans and build the sonic modulator, or her mother would be killed. I think that if she'd been allowed a trial, then odds are she would have been acquitted, or at the very most given a suspended sentence for mitigating circumstances."

"Did she succeed in building the modulator?" Jack asked quietly, his gaze fixed on the woman in the photo. She had such sad, solemn eyes, he thought.

"Yes, she did, and it worked," Ianto said with a small smile. Jack looked genuinely astonished, and Ianto knew why. He'd overheard Jack complaining to the Doctor not that long ago that he had tried to build his own sonic screwdriver, only to fail miserably. The Doctor had laughed, not unkindly, and advised him to forget about trying to replicate sonic technology, that it was not something that humans would be able to grasp until many hundreds of years into the future, and with the assistance of alien knowledge. One lone man, even one from the fifty-first century, could not hope to replicate sonic technology in the twenty-first century.

"Really…" Jack murmured.

"Yes, really. Toshiko Sato isn't merely smart, Jack. She's a bloody genius. And right now, she's wasting away in a UNIT penitentiary, facing the prospect of never seeing the light of day again."

Ianto could feel Jack tense under his touch.

"They locked her away? No trial? Nothing?"

"No trial," Ianto confirmed soberly.

Jack didn't respond immediately, and Ianto knew he was thinking about his own time locked away in an overly bright room with nothing but four blank walls, and heavy chains to keep him subdued. He waited patiently, hoping Jack would come to the right decision on his own, without any outside influence.

"We have to get her out of there," Jack said finally. His voice sounded just slightly strained, but that was all. Ianto transferred his hand from Jack's shoulder to his head, and carded his fingers lightly through Jack's hair.

"It will mean going head to head with the UNIT hierarchy. Do you think you're ready to do that?"

Jack frowned a little, but still leaned into Ianto's touch.

"You mean, am I ready to do it on my own, without the Doctor."

"You're not on your own, Jack. I guarantee that. It'll be you and I together. I just don't want to push you into doing something you're not really ready for."

A loud, derisive snort answered Ianto's words.

"Then you wouldn't have insisted I look at these. Okay, you win, all right? I want Toshiko here, on my team. Now, let's see who else you think is good enough for Team Torchwood."

Ianto snorted, and then burst out laughing.

"_Team Torchwood_? Bloody hell, Jack, where did you pull that one from?"

Jack shrugged, ignoring the red flush that tried to creep across his own cheeks.

"It sounds good."

"That's because it's alliterated."

Jack turned a mock glare on Ianto.

"Is there something wrong with that, Mr Jones?"

Ianto's amusement softened into something more tender.

"Nothing at all, Captain Harkness. All right, then. Let's see who else we have here…"

* * *

_to be continued...._


	2. Toshiko Sato

The phone call to UNIT Headquarters was both nerve-wracking and amusing, and Jack did them both proud with his unwavering demand to have Toshiko released from UNIT custody, into the employ of Torchwood. There was much bluster on the part of UNIT General Markson, and much yelling on the part of Jack, but in the end there was no contest. Torchwood had priority clearance over UNIT in Britain, a mandate given by the Queen herself, and UNIT had no choice but to capitulate.

Once Jack had finally hung up, after securing a time that very afternoon to speak directly to the young woman in question, Ianto rewarded him with a fierce, protective hug and a prolonged kiss.

"Well done, Jack."

Jack leaned into the embrace and sighed softly.

"You're coming with me, aren't you? It's just… if I go there on my own, I'm scared they'll try to lock me up. I know it's a stupid thing to be worried about, but I can't help it."

"It's not stupid, and of course I'm coming with you," Ianto assured him. "But they wouldn't dare, Jack. They know that if they did that to you, they'd bring down the wrath of the Doctor on them. Not to mention, Her Majesty would be seriously unamused. You're definitely one of her favourite people, and there's no way she'd stand for you to be mistreated by UNIT, or anyone else."

Jack grinned up at his young lover, a cheeky glint in his eyes.

"Does that mean you need to treat me nicely?"

Ianto's smile matched Jack's.

"Don't I always?"

* * *

By the time they got to the facility in question, Ianto was having serious second thoughts about the wisdom of allowing Jack to go there, and he wasn't too thrilled with being there himself, either. To say the place was bleak would have been the mother of all understatements. The inside of the facility was overly bright, and the walls and floor looked like they hadn't been washed in over a century. Ianto grimaced. The cells in the Torchwood Hub might not have been particularly attractive to look at, but at least they were clean. The entire place looked like a breeding ground for bacteria.

"My room at Torchwood One was cleaner than this place," Jack muttered, echoing Ianto's sentiment. "I'm starting to feel like I need a tetanus shot."

Ianto barely suppressed a smirk, especially when it became clear that the comment had been overheard by a stone-faced General Markson.

"This is a state of the art facility, Harkness," he snapped. Jack met his gaze, unflinching.

"For weevils, maybe. These are not suitable conditions for any human, no matter what they have or haven't done."

Markson grinned unpleasantly.

"Careful, freak. The Queen's rule won't last forever, and rumour has it the next in line for the throne isn't quite so taken with you. It might not be too long before you have the pleasure of becoming one of our permanent residents."

Ianto fully expected to have to physically restrain Jack, and so was pleasantly surprised when the older man didn't bat an eye in the face of Markson's taunts.

"I think I can safely say that I have plenty of time to prove my worth to the next monarch, General Markson. Now, I didn't come here to debate with you. Where is Toshiko Sato?"

"I told you on the phone," Markson snarled. "We can't release her. She committed espionage and treason, for God's sake!"

"She was trying to save her mother's life!" Jack thundered, and Ianto took some satisfaction in seeing the pompous General cringe backwards, away from Jack. "You had no right to lock her up! Now, you either bring her to me right now, or I swear I will lay this place to waste looking for her. Do you hear me, Markson?"

"One of these days, Harkness," Markson threatened. "I promise I'll have you."

Ianto groaned as, not unexpectedly, a lecherous grin lit up Jack's face.

"Well, if that's what you wanted, General, you should have just said so right from the start. I wouldn't have played so hard to get."

"Jack…" Ianto muttered, but it seemed to have done the trick. Markson went red, then white, and finally stormed away with a muttered demand that they not go wandering.

"It worked, didn't it?" Jack retorted, and Ianto took a subtle step closer to him as he sensed the tension running through his lover. Jack sighed faintly, and leaned in fractionally to close the distance between Ianto and himself.

"Be calm," Ianto murmured in a barely audible whisper that only Jack had any hope of hearing. "We'll be out of here before you know it."

"With Toshiko Sato," Jack added fiercely, and Ianto allowed himself the satisfaction of a tiny smile.

"Yes, cariad. With Toshiko."

* * *

Toshiko Sato was even tinier than Jack had imagined. Eventually he and Ianto had been escorted by a wide-eyed young soldier to one of the many cells, and the door was opened to reveal a fragile-looking young woman who was still bruised from the ordeal that had resulted in her being locked away. Jack stood there in the doorway, aware of how he probably looked to the frightened woman, and vividly remembering when the door of his own cell inside Torchwood One had first opened to reveal Ianto. He only hoped that he could be the proverbial knight in shining armour for her that Ianto had turned out to be for him.

"Come out of there," he told her gently.

She shuffled forward nervously, and Jack had to resist the urge to reach out to her. If by some unfortunate twist of fate they weren't able to take her out of the prison straight away, then he had no wish to do anything that might make her situation worse. After all, he had no reason to believe the guards in this place where any better than those who had monitored him for the better part of one hundred years in Torchwood.

They were escorted to a table in a starkly bare room. Their progress was interrupted just the once when, as they approached the table, the guard abruptly kicked Toshiko's legs out from under her, sending her to the floor with a pained and startled yelp. He lifted his gun, clearly intending to strike her while she was lying helplessly on the floor, but that was as far as he got.

Toshiko watched, wide-eyed, as the stranger in the army clothes grabbed the guard and literally threw him across the floor, while his younger companion crouched down and put an arm around her trembling shoulders in a protective gesture.

"You enjoy beating up on the prisoners, do you?" Jack snarled as he advanced threateningly on the frightened guard. "You like being able terrorize them?"

"She was going to run," the guard stammered, but his accusation only drew an enraged snarl from Jack.

"With chains on her feet? If you're going to lie, at least try and make it believable! Now get the hell out of here, before I lose my temper!"

The guard didn't even try to argue that he was supposed to stay and observe. He scrambled to his feet and fled the room as fast as he could. Jack watched him go with no small amount of satisfaction. There had been a time when his only weapon against brutal guards had been to make them fear him. He still had that advantage, but now he also had the authority to give real substance to it.

He returned to where Ianto was trying to encourage Toshiko back onto her feet, with little success. Her eyes were on him alone, and he knew she wasn't sure whether to fear him or to thank him. Reaching out, Jack took careful hold of her arms and lifted her up off the floor. She was so tiny and thin, it was like picking up a doll.

"I'm sorry about that, Toshiko," he apologised. "They have no right to treat you that way."

She shook her head, taking care to keep her eyes down.

"I'm a prisoner," she mumbled. "They can do what they like."

She couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of her tone, and silently cursed herself. Someone was likely to pick up on it, and she would suffer for it later on. A hand alighted briefly on her shoulder, and her attention was drawn long enough to see a hot cup of tea being set in front of her.

"I apologise for the quality," Ianto told her with a slight hint of wryness in his voice. "I hadn't thought far enough ahead to bring a thermos."

Jack snorted.

"Told you the catering was lousy here."

Toshiko glanced nervously from one man to the other as she closed her trembling hands around the cup. It might have not have been quality tea, but it was still far better than anything she'd had since they'd locked her up. Regardless, her concerns lay elsewhere, and there was one question first and foremost on her mind.

"Where's my mother?" she asked softly.

That was the question that had already earned her a backhand across the face from one of the guards. Even though this stranger didn't seem inclined to lash out at her, she knew she was still taking a risk. It didn't matter to her, though. She had to know that her mother was all right.

"She's safe," Jack answered plainly. "She won't remember being kidnapped, I wiped it from her memory." He paused, looking as though it had only just occurred to him that he might have overstepped the boundaries of propriety. "I hope you don't mind."

Toshiko, for her part, had momentarily forgotten her meekness, and was openly staring at Jack incredulously.

"You did _what_?"

Ianto half expected Jack to bluster a little at Toshiko's demand, but Jack didn't flinch.

"Really, it was just a little pill. She'll never have known. It's for the best, I promise. She won't remember the terror. She's happier for it."

Toshiko was still staring at him as though he'd grown a second head.

"Who are you?"

"Nobody," Jack answered softly. "Technically, I don't exist… And for a guy with my charisma, that's quite an achievement."

"Jack, please," Ianto interrupted lightly. "Tangents."

"Right. Sorry."

"Are you lawyers?" she asked, her confidence bolstered a little by simple hope. It was hard to decide which of the two men looked more amused at her question.

"Do we look like lawyers?" Jack asked. He paused, then shrugged. "Well, maybe Ianto does, a little."

Ianto rolled his eyes, but maintained a stoic silence. Jack went on, his expression suddenly deadly serious.

"We're not lawyers." He looked back to Toshiko with a solemn and slightly mournful expression, and only Ianto could see the tension in his lover's body as he spoke. "They're gonna make an example of you, Toshiko. Stealing official secrets in today's climate? They're going to keep you here without charge. Forever."

Ianto felt ill as Jack spoke, and he knew Jack felt the same way as they both watched the incredulity on Toshiko's face make way for dismay and acute fear.

"They can't do th..."

"They're never going to let you go," Jack cut her off.

A slight frown flickered across Ianto's face as he began to wonder whether Jack was perhaps laying it on a little more thickly than he really needed to. He said nothing, though. This was Jack's moment, and he had to give him the space to work his charm. It had to be Toshiko's choice to come with them, and work with them. He knew Jack would never take her into the Torchwood fold without her consent, and if this was the way he was choosing to do it, then so be it.

"I'm sorry," Jack went on solemnly, and before their eyes, they saw Toshiko's hopes collapse into dust as the reality of Jack's words sunk in. A moment later, Toshiko jumped a little as Ianto set a bag onto the table that she hadn't even realised he was carrying, and pulled out the very device that had gotten her into so much trouble in the first place.

"You made this, right?" Jack asked. He picked up the device and held it up in front of her face. Tosh couldn't help but start to feel intensely nervous. She wondered if the interrogation that she'd long been expecting was finally happening.

"I… I just followed the plans," she said, trying her best to downplay her role. Any and all attempts were circumvented when Jack uttered a short, sharp bark of laughter.

"Yeah, _kinda_. But first you had to grasp the concept of what a sonic modulator does. Most people would struggle with that. And another thing. The plans don't work."

Toshiko froze, staring up at Jack with wide eyes.

"What…?"

"The plans you followed were wrong," Ianto explained quietly. "That's why they were shelved. They didn't work."

"But you, Toshiko Sato," Jack said with a flourish that had Ianto rolling his eyes again, "made them work. You automatically corrected the errors as you went. What I'm trying to say is… Oh _baby_, you're good. I mean, you're good now, so imagine what you'd be like with a little training."

"So much potential," Ianto lamented, picking his moment to weigh into the conversation. "Such a shame that you'll be locked up in here for so long."

Toshiko looked from Jack to Ianto, and then back to Jack again with renewed desperation in her eyes and her voice.

"Please, you have to get me out of here!"

Jack responded with such speed that it set her head spinning.

"If _you_ come work for _me_."

"Really?"

Jack shrugged lopsidedly.

"Give me five years, and I'll get them to wipe your record clean." He paused, and a dark look that Toshiko couldn't understand swept briefly over his face. "They owe me a few favours."

Toshiko looked nervous, but also intrigued.

"What do you do?"

"Protect people," Jack offered.

"Save lives," Ianto interjected. Jack shrugged again.

"That's what we're aiming for. It's kind of a work in progress."

"What about my mother?"

"Limited contact only," Jack stated firmly. "You can send her postcards."

Ianto's eyebrows shot up, and he was grateful that Toshiko's attention was on Jack. He didn't want to believe that Jack was serious about that, but at the same time the other man's expression was deadly and utterly serious. Jack stared back at Toshiko, with just the barest hint of a smile on his face.

"What do you say?"

"Why would you trust me?" Toshiko asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"Instinct," Jack replied simply. His pale blue eyes glinted at her in the overly bright room. "It's gonna be dangerous. So what do you think, Toshiko? Think you can handle a little danger?"

* * *

Toshiko sat nervously in the back seat of the souped-up SUV, on her way to a new destination far away from the UNIT facility that had been her very bleak realm of existence for the last four months. She didn't know where she was going, and she only hoped it was better than where she'd come from.

Her eyes flickered nervously between Captain Harkness and his offsider, Mr Jones. A more mysterious pair she had never seen, and she knew nothing about them except that they had swooped in like proverbial superheroes. She could only hope and pray that they didn't turn out to be worse than her original jailers.

In the front, Jack noticed Toshiko watching them nervously, and nudged Ianto lightly. The younger man took the hint.

"I'm afraid that we won't have accommodation ready for you until tomorrow," Ianto told her. "And you'll need to do a bit of a shop for clothes and anything else you think you might need. We have a few basics for you at home, of course. I imagine you'll want to change out of that jumpsuit as soon as possible."

Toshiko lowered her eyes automatically, and spoke in a timid whisper.

"I… I don't have any money. UNIT took everything."

"The clothes and anything else you need is all on Torchwood," Jack said. "Ianto and I will take you shopping tomorrow, and you'll get whatever you want. Cost isn't an issue."

Ianto rolled his eyes at Jack's grand declaration, but didn't contradict him. He was just grateful to see they were finally home – it hadn't been the most pleasant of journeys for a number of reasons.

"Here we are. We've made up the guest room for you, Miss Sato. There's also a nice, big bath that you can have a good, long soak in. We'll probably also order out for dinner. Do you prefer Chinese or Indian?"

Neither Ianto or Jack missed the way her eyes lit up at the thought of food. It didn't surprise them. They knew full well that she'd had only the standard tasteless fare that UNIT routinely served to its prisoners. It was something else that Jack could sympathise with, for Ianto knew he vividly remembered the horrid slop that he had been expected to eat before Ianto came along.

"I… like Indian," she whispered, and immediately shrank back in on herself, as though frightened she'd made a mistake by speaking out. Jack hooted in delight.

"Yes! I was hoping you'd say that. I love Indian food. Ianto, you've gotta tell them to put in extra poppadums. I don't want to eat them all like last time, and have you and Tosh both be mad at me."

Ianto rolled his eyes yet again.

"Jack, I have complete faith in your ability to exhibit self-control. I'm sure you'll be good and share the poppadums, won't you?"

"Yes, Yan," Jack agreed cheerfully, and Toshiko barely kept herself from gaping. She'd been thrown by his use of an affectionate nickname that no one had called her by since she was a little girl, and then by the Captain's willing capitulation to his second-in-command. Not to mention, for a moment there, this mysterious character who had swept in and freed her from prison suddenly sounded very much like a child being warned against taking too many biscuits.

The dynamics between these two men were odd, to say the least, and she just hoped she could figure them out sooner rather than later.

* * *

Dinner quickly turned into a boisterous affair, and before long she found herself giggling at Jack's larger than life antics and personality. Despite her best efforts, she found herself wanting to trust these two men.

"Would it be all right if I send a postcard to my mother tomorrow?" she asked meekly when they'd finished eating. Jack, despite clear inclinations to the contrary, had taken care to share the poppadums. At Tosh's question, though, Ianto raised an eyebrow at Jack, who shrugged.

"I know, but I had to make a show of it, didn't I?"

Before Toshiko could ask what he was talking about, Jack pulled out his mobile phone and held it out to her.

"Give her a call, let her know you're all right."

She reached for the device, but stopped short of actually touching it. Jack smiled gently at her.

"It's not a trick, Toshiko. I only said postcards in that place because there were unfriendly ears listening, and I wanted to get you out of there. I have no intention of limiting your contact with your family. Take it. Call your mum. Please."

Tears of gratitude in her eyes, Tosh took the phone with trembling hands, and called her mother. Before long, a stream of rapid Japanese filled the room, and Jack and Ianto retreated to the kitchen to do the dishes and give their guest a little bit of privacy.

"Hopefully she'll start to trust us before too long," Jack murmured wistfully.

"Took you a while," Ianto pointed out gently, "although, your circumstances were a little more extreme."

Jack snorted.

"Understatement of the century, that is."

"I think we should do what we can to arrange for Toshiko to visit her mother," Ianto suggested. "Once she's settled, of course."

Jack nodded in wordless agreement, and Ianto felt a touch of concern as he sensed unease in his lover.

"What's wrong, Jack? Talk to me."

"That place," Jack said, looking torn between anger and grief. "It was as bad as Canary Wharf. I… I can understand why it happened to me, but how could they do that to Toshiko? It's wrong! She only wanted to save her mother, but they would've locked her up forever… like me…"

"All right, love, sit down," Ianto said in alarm as Jack's breath began to come in ragged gasps, and his eyes began to glaze over. He recognised all too well the signs that Jack was on the cusp of spiralling into a panic attack. "Now breathe slowly. Listen to me and breathe slowly. You're in a lovely, big house, not a cell. There's no one here to hurt you. You are safe, Jack, and you don't have to be afraid."

Gradually, Jack's breathing eased, and the panic subsided.

"I'm sorry," Jack murmured. "The memories were all there for a second, and I couldn't push them away. Most of all, though, I remember being so frightened all the time. I know that's how Toshiko must have felt, and it makes me feel so sick."

"What's going on?"

They both looked around, and Ianto suppressed a groan at the sight of Toshiko standing there, looking confused and a little bit suspicious.

"Are you… making fun of me?"

"We need to tell her," Jack said softly. "I want her to know the truth."

Ianto wanted to protest, but he didn't. Jack had the right to tell his story to whoever he wanted.

"Toshiko, sit down, please," Ianto told her. "You need to understand, we weren't trying to make light of your experience. The truth is that Jack really does understand what it's like to be locked up like an animal, with no rights."

"I was a prisoner," Jack explained in a sombre tone, "for a very long time."

"How long?"

Jack smiled bitterly. He could feel the panic trying to take hold again as memories assaulted him afresh, but he refused to surrender to it.

"If I told you, you'd think I was crazy."

At that, Tosh's eyebrows went up.

"I was blackmailed into building a device that isn't scientifically possible. You might be surprised at what I'll believe."

"Okay, then. How would it be if I told you I'm one hundred and seventy years old? Give or take a few years."

Tosh barely batted an eyelid at him.

"How?"

"It's complicated. Not that I don't think you'd understand. I'm sure you would, if the right person explained it to you, but that's not me. All I know is that I died, and someone brought me back to life. Now, I can't die, ever."

"You mean, you're really going to live forever?" Tosh asked incredulously. "But that's awful!"

A warm smile spread across Jack's face.

"I really like this one, Ianto. She's brilliant."

"I know," Ianto agreed. Her courage bolstered, Tosh ventured to ask another question.

"Who kept you prisoner, Jack? Was it UNIT?"

"No," Jack answered darkly, "but they would have locked me up if they'd gotten their grubby hands on me. No, it was Torchwood."

Tosh gaped at him in shock.

"Torchwood? Torchwood locked you up, and now you're working for it?"

"No," Ianto corrected her. "Now he's in charge of it, by mandate from the Queen."

"The ultimate revenge," Jack added with bitter satisfaction. "The freak is running the show now."

"Jack, stop it," Ianto admonished him lightly. "You are not a freak."

"Markson thinks I am," Jack grumbled. "So does Fischer."

Tosh uttered a startled squeak, drawing both Jack and Ianto's collective attention.

"General Fischer?" she asked in shock. "He came to see me this morning. I didn't understand what he was talking about at the time, but I do now. He told me that he'd be in touch and that I'd better be prepared to give a full report on 'the freak's activity' if I didn't want to be locked up again."

"Son of a bitch," Jack growled. "Tosh, don't you worry. They can't touch you now. I've already spoken to the Queen, and she's willing to extend her protection to you. No matter what happens, they can't hurt you or lock you away again."

Toshiko's astonishment was palpable.

"I… I thought you'd be angry with me."

"Not with you," Ianto assured her. "We would never hold you responsible for the actions of that bigoted bastard."

"He's the one from UNIT who wanted to lock you up, isn't he?" Tosh asked, and Jack answered with a tight nod.

"Still does. He'd send an army to Cardiff to get me, if he thought he could get away with it. He'll never see me as anything but a freak, or a monster."

"Well, you're not."

Both Jack and Ianto looked at Tosh in surprise, and she returned their gazes shyly.

"You're the ones who are giving me a second chance, not UNIT. You saved me. You're not a monster."

"I'd really like to hug you, Tosh," Jack said, suddenly sounding equally shy. "Can I?"

She smiled at that.

"I'd like that."

In the next instant, she gasped as she found herself wrapped up in a ferocious hug. Then, just as abruptly, Jack released her and bounded out of the kitchen, shouting that he was going to get the bathroom ready for Toshiko to use.

"He's very… exuberant," Tosh said in bemusement. Ianto chuckled.

"Yes, he is. He may take some getting used to, and his moods can fluctuate quite a bit, but he has a good heart and he's fiercely loyal to those who treat him right."

"He was treated badly, wasn't he?"

Ianto sighed softly and took a moment to glance back over his shoulder, and confirm that Jack had not come back from the bathroom.

"You can't begin to imagine how bad it was. Jack was more like a wild animal when I first saw him. He was incapable of communicating in even the most basic ways and he was a danger to everyone who went near him. It didn't help that he was treated like an active form of stress relief by the staff. He was experimented on, abused and degraded in the worst ways. It was horrendous, Tosh. I remember what Jack was like back then, and I want to weep every time. Torchwood stripped him of everything, including his very identity. It took him six months after I started taking care of him just to remember his own first name. For six months I called him Joe because I didn't know what his name was, and no one at Torchwood wanted to know. He was just an 'it' to them. They didn't want to think of him as human, because then they would have had to stop and really look at themselves. It took him so long to get to where he is now, and it makes me so angry to think there are still people out there, people like Fischer, who would willingly drag him back down."

"It's a bit hard to believe that he's willing to trust me," Tosh admitted, "especially after what I told you about General Fischer wanting me to report to him."

"For starters," Ianto told her, "we know you wouldn't do that. Secondly, he sees you as a kindred spirit, Tosh. You don't mind us calling you that, do you?"

"No," she murmured with a smile. "I don't mind at all."

"Good, because it suits you."

"Where do you fit in?" Tosh asked before she could lose her courage. "That is, if you don't mind me asking…"

"Not at all," Ianto reassured her. "I used to work for Torchwood London, and I was promoted… if you could call it that… to Secure Archives. My job was to look after Jack, although 'looking after' was a fairly loose term. He really had been treated horrendously, Tosh. It would have broken your heart to see him. At first, my main concern was trying to improve his living conditions, and to try and establish some means of communication with him. He wasn't talking at all to begin with. He'd just growl and snarl at people. It wasn't easy, but I managed to effect a change, and it wasn't long before he started speaking simple words. I'd been doing that job for around five months when, though pure luck, we were able to get Jack out of there."

"That must have been dangerous," Tosh murmured. Ianto chuckled darkly.

"It was, but I don't have the time to tell you about it now. All you need to know is that Jack is precious to me, and I'll protect him with everything I have."

A small smile graced Toshiko's face.

"You love him."

"Yes," Ianto answered without hesitation. "I do, very much, and he loves me. We are together, in every sense. Does that bother you?"

"No," Tosh reassured him. "In fact, everything makes better sense now. I've been watching you together, and I didn't understand why he sometimes seems submissive to you when he was obviously the one in charge. Now I do understand. Not all of it, mind you, but I'm beginning to. And for the record, you both look good together."

Ianto blushed, and a sweet smile spread over his face.

"Thankyou, Tosh." He stood up. "Now, why don't you have a good, long soak in the bath, and when you're done we'll have a talk about what will happen tomorrow."

Toshiko nodded in compliance. She turned towards the door, and walked straight into Jack's all-encompassing embrace. He hugged her fiercely, and dropped a kiss onto the top of her head.

"I'm glad you're with us," he said simply before allowing her to continue on her way.

* * *

Despite an utter, bone-deep weariness, Toshiko couldn't sleep. She lay in the bed, relishing the comfortable mattress, the soft pillows and the warm blankets, whilst marvelling at the change in her fortunes.

Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones. A more unlikely pair she couldn't have imagined, and when they'd told her of Jack's immortality, she knew that it should have freaked her out… but it didn't.

Believing wasn't an issue. She'd gotten a glimpse of Jack's apparent indestructibility that very evening, as well as his propensity to slip into a child-like state in moments of distress.

After bathing, she'd returned to the kitchen to find Jack in a real state, bleeding heavily from a deep wound in his hand and crying loudly. Apparently he had been attempting to cut a cheesecake, Ianto explained as Tosh rushed over to help. It had still been frozen solid, though. The knife had slipped, and Jack had suffered the consequences.

Alarmed by the amount of blood loss Jack was suffering, Tosh wanted to call for an ambulance, but Ianto shook his head and instead directed her attention to the injury. To Tosh's amazement, and right in front of her eyes, the wound healed until the only evidence remaining that an accident had happened was the blood.

Jack's prime requirement after that had been cuddles aplenty, something which both Ianto and she had willingly provided.

Her new boss was definitely on the odd side, but she couldn't help but trust him. There was something utterly endearing about his fluctuating personality, but even more than that, what really drew Toshiko was that Jack was still willing to trust her, even though he had every reason to trust no one at all. If he could make that leap of faith, then so could she.

She smiled into the darkness as she settled down finally. Whatever happened from now on, she swore that she would never betray the trust of her new employers, as long as she had free will. She would rather die first.

* * *

_to be continued...._


	3. Fruit Salad, with a Dash of Nanogenes

Seeing the Hub for the first time was truly an awesome experience for Toshiko. As the invisible lift carried them down, she couldn't help but ogle all of the various pieces of tech that she could see. When she was shown her new computer, she nearly wept.

"First priority," Jack told her. "Get our security systems up to scratch. I know UNIT have wormed their way into our mainframe, and have been keeping tabs on us. I want them _out_. I want the only way they can find out what we're doing to be by picking up the phone and asking. I don't want anyone to be about to break through our security, except the Doctor."

Tosh looked up at Jack uncertainly.

"I may need to hack into UNIT's system to make sure they can't get back in."

Impulsively, Jack leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"My brilliant Toshiko, you do whatever you have to. I trust you not to do anything that you shouldn't." He then flashed both her and Ianto a wicked grin. "At least, not without letting me in on it first."

"Jack!" Ianto chided him lightly, and Jack shrugged.

"I'm not suggesting anything _crippling_. Maybe just a little virus… You know, to keep them on their toes."

"Ignore him, Tosh," Ianto told her. "He's still re-learning the concept of cooperation."

Tosh took in Jack's pout, and patted his hand.

"Maybe next time, if you're good."

Jack laughed aloud and bounded away back to his office, leaving Tosh and Ianto alone together.

"He loves you already, Toshiko Sato," Ianto told her warmly. "And so do I."

She blushed fiercely.

"You've only just met me."

Ianto laid his hand lightly over hers.

"You make him laugh, Tosh. You put a smile on his face. You have no idea how special that makes you."

She returned his smile with a shy one of her own.

"I just hope I don't disappoint you. Either of you."

* * *

Two weeks later, Tosh was still adjusting to her new freedom. Jack and Ianto had given her so much latitude that if she had been so inclined, she could have set up a new identity and fled. With the technology available to her, they would never have found her. Their trust in her was so absolute, though, that she never even considered it.

She smiled faintly to herself as she waited for their lunches – fresh baguettes for all of them, and a tub of fruit salad for Jack. A week ago, she had picked up a tub for herself on a whim, and Jack had ended up devouring most of it with an enthusiasm that was almost frightening.

Every day afterwards, Jack had begged for fruit salad with his lunch, much to Tosh's amusement. Only that morning had Ianto finally explained, and told her the story behind Jack's love of fresh fruit. It had nearly reduced her to tears all over again. The food that she'd been given whilst loved up in the UNIT facility had at least been somewhat palatable, and she and the other prisoners had been allowed to eat whilst sitting at a table in a designated (if heavily guarded) room. She couldn't comprehend being expected to eat slop out of a bowl like a dog.

The more she learnt of Jack's dehumanising treatment, the more she respected him for his strength in recovering.

Someone came to stand beside her, and bumped her roughly in the process. She looked at the offending individual with a disapproving frown, only to gasp in fright. General Fischer himself stood there, smiling down at her unpleasantly. He was dressed in civilian clothes, probably to avoid attracting attention.

"Miss Sato," he greeted her in a pleasant tone that made her want to cringe. She had only met the man once before, but that one time was more than enough to know that he was anything but pleasant.

"What do you want?" she demanded, trying to inject some semblance of authority into her voice. "You can't take me back to that place..."

"Oh, I don't intend to try, my dear. No, the truth is that you're much more valuable to me now right where you are."

Fright quickly began to make way for suspicion.

"What do you want?" she asked again, tensely. He motioned to the counter, where the young woman at the register was trying to get her attention.

"Collect your order, and then we'll talk. And believe me when I tell you that it's in your best interests to hear me out."

Tosh collected the food, and meekly followed Fischer to a corner table.

"I don't know how much you know about Harkness..."

"I know enough," Tosh retorted. "He hasn't kept anything from me."

Fischer regarded her amusedly.

"Then you should be aware that he's a freak who should be locked up.

Anger flared through Tosh, and she pushed her fear away to defend her new boss.

"Don't call him that! He's a good man..."

"He is a _freak_," Fischer repeated caustically, "and he never should have been given control of Torchwood. He should have been handed over to UNIT so that we could contain him, and perhaps eventually learn from him."

"Experiment on him, you mean," Tosh snapped. Again, Fischer looked amused.

"If you want to be crude, then yes."

Tosh stood up abruptly. She'd heard enough.

"I don't have to listen to you. I'm going."

"How is your brother, Miss Sato?"

Tosh froze, staring at him in growing dread.

"What about him?"

"Were you aware he's just obtained an internship with UNIT in Japan? General Takoma is a close friend of mine, you know. He's the UNIT Chief of Japan. One word from me, and he might just arrange for little Keijii to get a rapid promotion from intern to lab rat. Did you know the experimental facility in Osaka has quite a high mortality rate? Something tells me that your little brother wouldn't last long at all."

"You bastard," Tosh whispered. "What do you want from me?"

Fischer set a small vial on the table that was filled with a clear liquid. As Tosh peered at it, it seemed to her that it was almost glowing.

"I want you to add this to Harkness's food. Don't worry, it won't be fatal... Well, at least, not permanently. It's just a little project that my personal department has been working on. We want to test its effect of humans, but my superiors won't agree to human trials yet. Harkness is the perfect candidate for a little off-the-records test."

"But how will you even know what it does?" Tosh wondered. She was ashamed to confess that she was curious, despite the circumstances.

"Nanobots," Fischer told her, sounding perversely like a proud parent. "UNIT salvaged them from an incident in London during World War II, apparently. Ingenious little things. They'll transmit all the data directly back to us. All you have to do is put it in his food, and little Keijii will be fine."

Tosh glared at him.

"You mean, until the next time you want me to betray Jack."

Fischer smiled unpleasantly.

"You are going to be my own personal little Torchwood spy, Toshiko Sato. You wanted to play at espionage? Well, now you can do it for UNIT. And if you be a good little girl, and do everything you're told, then your brother will stay safe, and you'll have a cosy job waiting for you at UNIT when Harkness and Jones eventually figure it out. You refuse, and I will make your life a living hell. Do you understand me?"

When she said nothing, Fischer smirked and lifted the lid on the fruit salad. He poured the contents of the vial in and carefully replaced the lid.

"Now, be a good girl and take your boss his lunch."

"You bastard..."

All noise in the cafe ceased momentarily at the sharp sound of flesh striking flesh as Fischer slapped Toshiko across the face.

"Language, Miss Sato. You don't _ever_ speak to me like that. Now, go. And remember, your brother's life depends on you."

She went with tears in her eyes and fury in her heart.

* * *

Long before she reached the tourist office that was the front for the Torchwood base, Tosh knew she could not betray her boss. Despite Fischer's threats towards her brother, she couldn't do it. Fischer claimed to hold Keijii's fate in his hands, but she trusted Jack to be able to save him.

She hurried into the Hub, and had no problem spotting Jack. It seemed he had been waiting for her – or, more likely, waiting for his fruit salad. He bounded towards her with a big grin, and eager eyes and hands.

"Jack, no!" Tosh burst out anxiously. "You can't eat this!"

He halted in front of her, and for an insane moment, she thought he was actually going to cry.

"Why not? Do we have to wait for Ianto? But I'm hungry, Tosh!"

He started to reach for the fruit salad again, only to have his hands slapped away.

"Jack, I said no!" Tosh told him sternly. "Now, where's Ianto?"

"Right here," Ianto spoke up as he emerged from the lower levels. She guessed he'd been downstairs either working in the archives, or perhaps seeing to the welfare of their one resident weevil. It was impossible to tell with Ianto, given that he always managed to look immaculate, regardless of what he'd been doing. "What's going on?"

"Tosh won't give me my fruit salad, Ianto," Jack complained. Ianto rolled his eyes.

"Honestly, Jack, you're not ten. Stop pouting. Toshiko, what's wrong?"

"I ran into General Fischer from UNIT," she told them, and was gratified to note that she had their sudden and undivided attention. "He put what I think is some sort of poison into the fruit salad, and told me that I had to give it to Jack or..."

"Or what?" Ianto pressed. Toshiko blinked back tears.

"He threatened to have my brother Keijii killed."

Silence enveloped them, and for several long seconds, Ianto and Jack simply stared at each other.

"That scheming son of a bitch," Ianto said finally in a cold, angry voice. Jack turned his attention to Tosh.

"You could have just let me eat it. I wouldn't have known."

"But I would have," she answered. "You gave me a second chance, Jack. I won't betray you."

She abruptly found herself wrapped up in a fierce hug.

"Thankyou, my beautiful Toshiko. I won't you let down now, I promise."

"Jack, what are you going to do?" Ianto asked. Jack pointed to his office.

"I want you to get on the phone to the Brigadier. Tell him that he needs to get Keijii Sato transferred out of Japan immediately. Tell him that I'll explain later. As if General Anderson would be willing to take him in for the time being. And Tosh? Did Fischer tell you anything about the poison?"

"Not really," Tosh admitted. "He didn't even say it was a poison, actually. I just assumed it was. But he did say there were nanobots in it."

"Nanobots?"

"That's what he called them. He said they were salvaged after an incident in World War II, in London."

Jack paled just fractionally.

"That stupid son of a bitch. He can't possibly have any idea what it is that he's messing with."

"I don't understand," Tosh confessed. "Fischer said that all they were for was to send data back to UNIT."

"For starters, they're called nanogenes, not nanobots," Jack explained. "Secondly, they do much more than just transmit. Even if UNIT think they've figured out how to program them, the little guys in here could still literally do anything. We need to find out as much as we can about what Fischer wanted you to give me."

Panic flooded Tosh's face as she misinterpreted Jack's intentions, and she snatched the tainted tub of fruit salad off the desk.

"No! Jack, don't you dare! You are not eating any of this!"

Jack stared at her, wide-eyed, before smiling gently.

"You really are brilliant, my beautiful Toshiko. Don't worry, I have no intention of using myself as a guinea pig, I promise."

It was obvious from the look on her face that she didn't believe him, not to mention the tight hold she kept on the fruit salad.

"Then how are you going to find out?"

"I'm going to call a friend of mine."

It wasn't until Jack had walked away that it finally occurred to Toshiko that he was talking about the Doctor, and once it did, she honestly didn't know whether to be excited or afraid.

* * *

"I'm going to call the Doctor."

Ianto looked up from where he sat at Jack's desk, mild surprise on his face that soon faded into understanding. It hadn't escaped his attention, either, that Jack had not openly asked for his approval, but had simply stated what he was going to do.

"I think that's probably a very wise thing to do," Ianto said finally. "The fact that Fischer is going to these lengths is a big concern. We need the support. You're making the right decision."

Jack walked over and Ianto automatically vacated the Captain's chair to allow him to sit down.

"Toshiko thought I was going to actually eat it, even after I knew it had been poisoned. She really thought I was going to do that… Ianto, do I really come over as being like that?"

Ianto sat carefully on the edge of the desk.

"Like what? Suicidal?"

"Yeah."

"No, you don't. I do wonder, though, what you might have been like if you hadn't ended up as Torchwood's prisoner. I wonder what sort of a man you would have turned out to be if you'd been left to your own devices."

A bitter look flickered across Jack's face.

"Free to wander around for over a hundred years, not knowing what had happened to me, why I couldn't die, and thousands of years trapped outside of my own time? It's crossed my mind, too."

"You haven't completely forgiven him for abandoning you, have you?" Ianto asked softly. Jack's hand snaked slowly across the desk, towards the toy dog, only to pull back at the last moment. His hands itched to hold the toy, and cuddle it to his chest, but that was not something that the leader of a secret organisation should be seen doing. He drew his hand back and instead settled for playing with a paperclip. It was a poor substitute.

"I've forgiven him," Jack answered finally. He carefully avoided meeting Ianto's gaze, not wanting to see the sympathy that he knew would be in the younger man's eyes. "I forgave both of them."

"The Doctor… and Rose?"

Jack shook his head, quick to answer Ianto's audible confusion.

"No. The Doctor and the TARDIS. Rose wasn't at fault… Not like that. She didn't abandon me, and I think that if she'd known for sure that I was still alive, she would have made the Doctor go back for me."

"She told me she wanted to give him one hell of a slap when he admitted he'd left you behind on purpose," Ianto mused. "But apparently Jackie beat her to it."

"She told me that, too. I don't know if she thought it might make me feel any better about it." He sighed a little. "I've forgiven them for leaving me behind, and not coming back, but I won't ever be able to forget."

Ianto reached across and laid his hand over Jack's, stroking his thumb soothingly over Jack's skin.

"No one ever forgets being left behind, but I'm glad you were able to forgive them. That's important. Now, I spoke to the Brigadier," the young man went on, and Jack quickly became the picture of seriousness once more, quietly grateful for the change of subject. "He said Keijii Sato will be safely out of Japan within the hour, and that General Anderson will have no problems giving him refuge. As for other family, there's only her grandfather and a couple of uncles. She's not especially close to them, though. Keijii was his best leverage."

"She chose us," Jack murmured, watching Toshiko discreetly where she sat at her desk on the other side of the Hub. "She didn't know if we could or would guarantee her brother's safety, but she trusted us anyway."

"You were willing to take a chance on her," Ianto reminded him. "She's just returning the favour."

* * *

Within a couple of hours, Jack was enthusiastically introducing Toshiko to the Doctor, who greeted her with equal head-spinning enthusiasm. Rose was not with him, and when Jack inquired as to her whereabouts, all the Doctor would say was that she had gone shopping with a new friend, and that he had promised to meet them in a couple of hours' time. Then, when Jack and Ianto explained the situation, he favoured Tosh with a look of utter respect.

"You're a brave woman, Toshiko Sato, and believe me when I say that you've trusted the right people."

Tosh smiled warmly at Jack and Ianto.

"I know."

The Doctor rubbed his hands together, looking positively gleeful for a moment.

"Right, then. How do we deal with the soon-to-be demoted General Fischer?"

"I have an idea, actually," Jack spoke up. "As long as you can watch and listen from the TARDIS...?"

The Doctor snorted loudly.

"Child's play, Captain. Now, let's hear this idea of yours."

* * *

General Fischer was lounging comfortably in the back of his car when his mobile phone rang. Frowning at both the interruption and the unidentified caller, Fischer reluctantly answered.

"Fischer."

"_You've got balls, Fischer. I'll give you that_."

For a brief instant, Fischer nearly panicked. Then, his arrogance took over once more and he smirked into his phone.

"Harkness. I take it from this phone call that little Toshiko chose not to do as I asked. Makes me wonder just what you've done for her... or _to_ her to convince her to choose your life over her brother's."

He expected a rise from Jack at the thinly veiled suggestion, and was more than a little perturbed that it didn't happen.

"_So you did threaten Keijii_."

"Not in any way that you or she could prove. And as I'm sure you're recording this conversation, I'd strongly advise against using it. Keijii could still have an unfortunate accident."

"_Keijii Sato_," Jack said tersely, "_is sitting in a private jet right at this moment, en route to the United States. General Anderson has agreed to take him. You can't touch him, Fischer._"

"You interfering bastard, Harkness."

_Language, General. You never know who might be listening in. Now, you're going to agree to meet with me, and we are going to sit down and discuss this like gentlemen_."

"Only one of us is a gentleman, Harkness."

"_I know that, but I am at least trying to be polite here. Now, where are you?_"

Fischer scowled. He had a sneaking suspicion that the Torchwood Captain already knew exactly where he was.

"Still in Cardiff," he admitted sourly.

"_Good. Be at the Dragon's Head Inn in one hour._"

"Where the hell is that?"

"_You have GPS in that fancy car of yours, don't you?_"

"Well, yes, but..."

"_Then tell your driver to use it. Be there, and don't be late._"

* * *

_to be continued...._


	4. Confrontation

Jack was already there waiting when Fischer arrived. The General seated himself with an indignant grunt, and neither man offered their hands for shaking.

"Let me guess," Fischer said frostily before Jack had a chance to say a word. "You want me to leave little Toshiko alone. Well, forget it, Harkness. The woman is a criminal, and I'll damn well do as I like."

Jack raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"Including threatening her family in order to get her to poison me?"

"I've done nothing you can prove," Fischer said smugly. He grabbed the half full whiskey bottle that sat on the table and poured himself a shot, downing it in one swallow before speaking again. "And if you don't want anything to happen to the rest of little Toshiko's family, then you won't try, either."

Much to Fischer's irritation, far from being cowed, Jack appeared amused.

"For all you know, I could be wearing a wire. There might be people listening in on this right now who will be ready to arrest you as soon as you walk out of here."

"And for all you know, I could have a dozen men waiting outside to grab you as soon as _you_ leave." He leaned forward and a cruel sneer twisted his features. "Do you think you'd like that, Harkness? If I hauled your sorry arse to the most remote UNIT facility I can think of, and lock you up in the smallest, deepest and darkest hole I can find? I bet that would be just like home to you, wouldn't it?"

Jack itched to get his hands around Fischer's throat and throttle him until the man's eyes bulged out of their sockets, and he quietly marvelled at his own restraint. Even so, he couldn't quite suppress the shudder that rippled through him at the thought of being locked away again. Fischer saw it, and his grin widened.

"That's right, Harkness. You think about it. Never mind the Queen, or your precious Doctor. I could have you locked away at any time, if I wanted. Your liberty is entirely at my discretion."

Jack stilled in his seat as he felt the blood chill in his veins at Fischer's words. They were almost an exact echo of the words spoken to him by Emily Holroyd, just before she and Alice fucking Guppy had locked him away. Far from inducing fear, though, Fischer's words filled Jack with fresh determination not to let this arrogant bastard get what he wanted. With that in mind, he allowed himself the tiniest of smirks.

"You really are an egotistical bastard, aren't you? I mean, I thought _my_ ego was pretty big, but... really, _wow_."

Fischer poured himself another shot.

"You're a freak, Harkness, and you're dangerous. I won't be satisfied until I have you permanently under lock and key. I don't care how long it takes. One day, I promise I will have you locked away."

He swigged down the shot but the burning liquor only provided a modicum of warmth against the sudden chill he got from the Captain's glacier blue eyes.

"You're right about one thing, Fischer," Jack said in a deceptively calm voice. "I _am_ dangerous."

"Stop trying to scare me," Fischer scoffed. "You sound like a ten year old playing at being a gangster."

Jack moved so fast that Fischer never had time to even yelp. His hand shot out and grabbed Fischer's wrist in a vice-like grip, from which Fischer found he was unable to break free.

"What the hell...? Let me go, you bloody freak!"

"You see this?" Jack snarled, indicating his vortex manipulator. "It's a handy little thing that lets me jump through time and space... me, and anything or anyone that I happen to be in contact with at the time."

He felt more than just a twinge of satisfaction when he saw the first real hint of panic in Fischer's features.

"Let me go!" Fischer shouted, no longer trying to maintain any attempt at being clandestine. "I swear to God, Harkness, if you don't let me go right now..."

"I wonder how a guy like you would cope if I decided to drop you off on a little, out of the way planet like Baltor, in the fifty-second century?" Jack mused, all the while maintaining a steel grip on Fischer's wrist. "Probably not so good. It's a slave planet, you see, and humans are at the bottom of the food chain there. I mean that literally. You'd be nothing more than pet food on Baltor. Or... maybe I could send you to Arthemix Five. I had a brush there with slavers myself not so long ago. How do you think _you_ would feel about being sold on the pleasure market? Hmm? No? Well, then, what about I just send you directly to the fifty-first century, to the Time Agency Headquarters, and let my old colleagues deal with you?"

By that time, Fischer had ceased his struggles, and was staring at Jack with saucer-wide eyes.

"You wouldn't dare..."

Abruptly, Jack released his hold on Fischer, and the General fell back in his seat with an unceremonious thud.

"No. I wouldn't. That's the difference between us, General. I'm not the sadist that you appear to be." Jack shook his head in disgust. "You threatened Toshiko's brother in order to try and force her to poison me, and you call me the monster? I don't think so, General."

Fischer glared at Jack as he rubbed his wrist gingerly.

"I do what I have to do for the advancement of humanity," he snapped.

"I know," Jack conceded. "And you know what? That's what makes you the biggest monster of all."

"You goddamn freak," Fischer snarled.

"Tell me, General. What was the poison?"

"Go to hell, Harkness."

"I really think you ought to tell me."

"I don't have to tell you a goddamned thing!"

"Right. So tell me, how's the whiskey?"

Fischer froze, even as he was reaching for the bottle to pour a third shot into his glass.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Jack didn't speak. He simply sat there and stared at the other man without uttering a sound, and watched as the realisation dawned on the General's face.

"You didn't... Tell me you didn't!"

Amusement filled Jack's face.

"I could, but I'd be lying."

"You bastard, Harkness. You goddamn bastard!"

"Language," Jack chided lightly. "Now, what was the poison meant to do? Tell me now, and I promise I'll let you have the antidote."

Fischer was livid, looking as though he was going to launch himself at Jack any moment.

"How the hell can you offer an antidote for a poison you haven't even identified?"

Jack slipped his hand into his pocket and produced a vial filled with a pale pink liquid.

"This is a handy little cure-all that was developed on Planet Grellidor some time in the eighty-ninth century. It cures every disease, illness and affliction, man-made or otherwise. Tell me what you were going to poison me with, and I'll let you have it."

"I'll have your arse in a sling for this, Harkness."

A slightly dreamy look pervaded Jack's expression.

"Mm, I tried that once, you know. It's really not as comfortable as it sounds, although the friction it creates is absolutely _amazing_."

Even though the sound being transmitted by his vortex manipulator only went one way, Jack almost swore he could hear Ianto choking. The look of disgust on Fischer's face quickly sobered him, though.

"You are one sick piece of work, Harkness. Torchwood was right to lock you up. You and your pretty little toy boy, and I'll tell you right now that I'm going to have both of your arses locked up in the most secure facility that I can find. Hell, I'll have Jones executed for collaboration with you. Do you hear me, Harkness? I'm going to lock you away in the deepest hole I can find, and I'm going to have your little boyfriend's head on a platter."

All humour evaporated from Jack's face, and he stood up slowly.

"Get up, Fischer."

"Or what? You can't do a damned thing to me, and the poison you think you've doped me with? It wasn't poison at all, you stupid son of a bitch. Those nanobots weren't programmed to poison, they were programmed to track you and record every little thing you do. We would've known even when you went to take a piss. So, if you think you're going to blackmail me..." He faltered as the passive look on Jack's face finally registered with him. "You already knew..."

"Yeah," Jack confirmed. "I did."

Fischer grunted as Jack suddenly grabbed him by his shoulders and hauled him out of the booth.

"For starters, they're not called nanobots. They're called nanogenes. Secondly, we hacked them and reprogrammed them, so now we're going to be the ones keeping track of everything _you_ do. Thirdly, I can do whatever the hell I want. We're hidden by a little thing called a perception filter, which basically means that I could kill you right here and now, and no one would even notice. Do _you_ understand _me_, you pretentious bastard? Now, time to take a little trip."

Fischer barely had time to whimper before Jack activated his vortex manipulator, and the two of them vanished in a flash of bluish-white light.

* * *

Inside the TARDIS, Ianto's mouth went dry with horror as he realised too late what Jack was doing.

"No!" the Doctor shouted, the first hints of panic appearing in the Time Lord's tone. "Where have you gone, Jack? Blast it, I should've disabled that ruddy thing permanently, not fixed it!"

"You can find him, can't you?" Ianto asked tensely. "Can't you, Doctor?"

"With the rift to boost the power on his manipulator?" the Doctor retorted. "Ianto, he literally could be anywhere in time and space."

"Found him," Tosh announced abruptly, drawing the attention of the others. "Look, they're up on the roof of the Millennium Centre."

"Oh, Toshiko Sato, you are _brilliant_," the Doctor enthused.

"But what are they doing?" Ianto wondered. "What is Jack doing..."

He trailed off as the blood chilled in his very veins. He didn't want to believe that Jack could be so foolish, but it came down to one fact. Stewart had threatened to separate him and Jack. Jack could and would shrug off any threats to himself, but the moment anyone threatened his Ianto, all bets were off.

"Doctor, get us up there," Ianto said softly. "And hurry."

* * *

General Fischer really didn't know at what point he'd actually lost control of the situation. A tiny, smug voice that sounded suspiciously like the Brigadier told him that he'd only ever had an illusion of control, and that if he'd had even half an ounce of sense he would have run a mile in the opposite direction, away from Jack Harkness.

"You kill me," Fischer stammered, "and they really will lock you up."

"Right now, right at this moment, do I look like I care? You threatened me, Stewart. I can live with that. I might even be able to forgive it. But no one _ever_ threatens my Ianto."

Fischer felt his mouth go dry as, with every word Jack spoke, he was tilted further and further out over the edge of the Millennium Centre roof. Even the appearance of the TARDIS behind them failed to distract the Captain, and Fischer honestly didn't know whether to be relieved or terrified when the very same young man whom he had threatened only minutes ago emerged from within the ancient ship.

Ianto said nothing until he came to stand level with Jack, and he eyed Fischer like the man was merely some fascinating alien curio that had slipped through the rift.

"Jack," he said finally in a calm voice that completely belied the very real tension he was feeling.

"He threatened you," Jack said through gritted teeth. It didn't escape Fischer's attention, however briefly, that Jack didn't appear the least bit surprised by Ianto's appearance at his side. "Nobody threatens you."

"Cariad, I think he rather gets the point now. Don't you, General Fischer?"

By that time, Fischer had abandoned all pretence of stoicism, and he clutched desperately at Jack's arms.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out. "I'm sorry, I won't..."

"You won't what?" Jack asked.

"I won't bother you again," Fischer moaned. "I promise, I'll leave you alone. I'll leave all of you alone."

"Even Toshiko and her family?" Ianto prompted.

"Yes! Them, too. Just please... Don't drop me!"

With disturbing ease, Jack lifted Fischer into the air and swung him around, dumping him unceremoniously back on solid ground. He eyed Fischer with disdain as he stepped away from him.

"I was never going to drop you. I told you, I don't operate like that. What I am going to do is give the recording of our little chat to your superiors. You're done, Fischer."

With a last glare, Jack turned and followed Ianto back to the TARDIS. He was almost there when the roar of a gun being fired brought everything to a standstill.

Ianto whirled around in time to see Jack go down, a look of pained surprise on his face. Fischer was just aiming his weapon at Ianto to take a second shot, and Ianto jerked in fright at the loud report of a gun, thinking he'd been shot as well. It wasn't he who collapsed, though. It was Fischer.

Looking back over his shoulder, Ianto heaved a sigh of relief at the welcome sight of the Brigadier striding out of the open doorway of the TARDIS, his gun drawn.

"I did not approve the use of guns!" the Doctor fumed as he also emerged from within the TARDIS. The Brigadier looked as unconcerned as the Doctor looked angry.

"Firstly, I didn't kill him. I only wounded him. The treacherous bastard will live to face the court martial that's coming. Secondly, had I not taken action, I suspect young Mr Jones would probably be dead. Fischer was aiming at him that time. Lastly, I really do think you ought to be showing some concern over the fact that your companion is dying."

The Doctor flinched as the Brigadier's words sank in, and he hurried to join Ianto and Toshiko at Jack's side.

"Can't you do something?" Toshiko asked pleadingly.

"There's only one thing I can do," the Doctor answered soberly. He reached over and gently stroked his fingertips along Jack's temple. "It's all right, Jack. You can let go. We'll all be here when you come back. Let go now."

Jack's eyes fluttered once, and then his body stilled in Ianto's arms.

"How long?" the Brigadier queried. "How long before he'll come back?"

"He went quickly," Ianto mused, "so he shouldn't take too long to come back. As long as it's a clean wound... Oh my god..."

He'd rolled Jack's body over to examine the wound, only to discover the bullet had ripped into Jack's body like it had razor edges.

"Hollow point bullets, with carved tips," the Brigadier said in disgust as he removed one of the bullets from the chamber of Fischer's gun. "Designed to do maximum damage. Jack may have died quickly, but he must have been in absolute agony."

"Which means he'll be in agony when he comes back," Ianto said bitterly. "Fischer, you bloody bastard!"

Fischer uttered a strangled laugh where he lay on the concrete.

"It's no less than that freak deserves."

"And you'll be getting what you deserve, you bloody sadist," the Brigadier thundered. "I'll see you locked up for the rest of your miserable life for this!"

Rising unsteadily to his feet, Ianto approached Fischer slowly, with sheer hatred in his eyes.

"You are nothing to Jack. You're just the blink of an eye to him. He'll carry on long after you're dead and gone and he won't remember you at all. You can't hurt him anymore, General. Do you hear me? You cannot hurt him anymore."

Fury at the dismissal filled Fischer's face, but Ianto was already walking away from him, back to his lover's side. The Brigadier took the young man's place, regarding Fischer coldly.

"You should have walked away, Fischer. You should have left well enough alone. Everything that's happening now is entirely your own doing."

"It won't stick," Fischer spat. "You can charge me with whatever you like, but it won't stick."

"You will let it _stick_. If you walk free from this, I promise you'll regret it."

"What are you going to do, talk me to death?"

An unpleasant smile filled the Brigadier's face.

"If you walk free, then you might just find yourself on the receiving end of one of those accidents that you threatened Keijii Sato with."

Slowly, the anger on Fischer's face faded, to be replaced with plain and simple confusion.

"Why? Why are you defending him? He's not even human!"

"Because," the Brigadier answered, "it's the right thing to do. He's a good, honest man, Fischer. As for just how human he is, we don't judge the Doctor in that respect. Captain Harkness is no less deserving and considering what he's been through, we ought to consider ourselves bloody lucky that he's chosen to stay on Earth."

"Save your platitudes," Fischer spat. "I don't want to hear it."

"And I wouldn't want to waste my breath," the Brigadier snapped back. "You're done, Fischer."

He turned away and walked back to the door of the TARDIS, where the Doctor was waiting. Jack had been moved from the roof, back into the safe confines of the TARDIS, where the Brigadier knew he would be made as comfortable as possible while his body resurrected and healed.

"A UNIT platoon is on its way," the Doctor told him, and the Brigadier answered with a nod.

"Good. Go on, then, Doctor. Take your people into the vortex, and bring them back when they're ready. I'll stay and deal with this situation."

"Thankyou," the Doctor told him sincerely.

* * *

The Doctor took the TARDIS first to London, knowing that if he didn't pick up Rose and their newest travelling companion first, then he'd be hearing about it for weeks. The two women entered the TARDIS laughing and carrying laden bags, happily oblivious to the trouble that had preceded their return to the ancient time ship. The Time Lord dreaded telling them – Rose, especially – knowing that he would be in for it when Rose found out what had happened.

"You ladies might like to put your things in your rooms," the Doctor suggested soberly. "Then come to Jack and Ianto's room."

Silence fell, and Rose took a small step towards the Doctor.

"Jack and Ianto are on board? Why? What's happened?"

And suddenly, the Doctor found he couldn't tell them.

"Just come to their room," he said quietly. "I'll explain then."

As they hurried from the control room, the Doctor took the TARDIS into the vortex, and then headed for the room of his erstwhile companions.

* * *

Jack had not yet resurrected, although it was clear that the wound that had killed him was already healed. In fact, at a glance it looked as though the Captain was only sleeping, and the Doctor supposed that wasn't an entirely inaccurate description. In a way, Jack was just sleeping, and they were all waiting for him to awaken from that deep sleep. It wouldn't be long, either. He could feel the mildly unpleasant tingling beginning again, alerting him to Jack's...

No, he chided himself. He had sworn to himself that he would no longer think of Jack as wrong. The younger man had long since proven his worth.

"Oi. You gonna introduce me, or do I have to do it myself?"

The Doctor came back to reality to find a bemused face in front of his own. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he ushered her forward, momentarily ignoring Rose's confused and worried face.

"Martha Jones, this is Mr Ianto Jones, Miss Toshiko Sato, and the one taking a brief nap is Captain Jack Harkness. They are Torchwood."

Ianto eyed the Doctor with a faint smile, grateful for a momentary distraction.

"Picking up more young women, Doctor?"

Rose slapped him lightly on the arm.

"Leave it, suit boy. Martha saved our lives when that hospital in London was teleported to the Moon. The Judoon were looking for a plasmavore, and everyone would've died without her. The Doctor and I asked her to travel with us for a bit, and she agreed, and it's been absolutely brilliant."

Martha smiled warmly at Rose as she approached the bedside.

"It has," she agreed. "Met Shakespeare..."

"Got hit on by Shakespeare," Rose added with a grin. Martha blushed.

"Took a trip to the future, met the Face of Boe... It has been brilliant." She trailed off as her attention finally focused on the bed's occupant. Frowning, she reached down to feel for a pulse before finally looking around at the others with a stricken expression. "I'm sorry, but he's not just sleeping... He's dead."

Showing his usual impeccable timing, Jack chose that very moment to resurrect with a ragged gasp, lurching up off the bed and literally flinging himself into Ianto's waiting arms.

"Easy, cariad," Ianto murmured soothingly as Jack trembled in his arms. "It's all right. You're all right. I'm here."

"Well, so much for me," Martha said in astonishment.

"You weren't wrong," Rose reassured her. "He was dead, and now he's not."

"But... how is that possible?"

"C'mon," Rose said. She hooked one arm through Martha's and the other through the Doctor's, and urged them towards the door. "Let's go somewhere else and we'll explain."

Oblivious to their departure, Ianto cradled Jack to him as the Captain shuddered and trembled. He knew from grim experience that it would take time for Jack to be free of the residual pain, and that in this instance in particular that residual pain was going to be particularly bad.

"My back hurts," Jack said in a voice that was muffled by Ianto's shoulder.

"I know, love. Fischer shot you with a specialised bullet. It did a lot of damage. Just sit quietly for a bit, all right?"

"He didn't hurt you?"

"No, he didn't. The Brigadier made sure of that. We're just sorry we couldn't stop him from hurting you. He's been stopped now, though. He can't hurt us anymore."

"Tosh?" Jack asked, and she moved into his line of sight.

"I'm sorry, Jack," she whispered tearfully. "All of this happened because of me."

Jack huffed in annoyance, and drew her into their embrace.

"Wasn't your fault, you hear me? And I'd do everything just the same all over again to keep him and anyone else from hurting you. I love you, Tosh."

She looked momentarily startled by his declaration before a warm smile settled on her face.

"I love you too, Jack."

* * *

_to be continued...._


	5. Epilogue

The Brigadier watched with a sombre expression as UNIT troops swarmed the roof of the Millennium Centre, securing Fischer for transportation and gathering what evidence remained.

"Excuse me, Brigadier?"

The aging Scotsman looked around as a younger lieutenant approached, with Fischer's gun in hand.

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"Sir, you say that General Fischer shot Captain Harkness once. Correct?"

"That's correct."

"Well, the weapon appears to have two bullets unaccounted for, sir."

The Brigadier frowned, and brought out the bullet he'd removed from the gun's chamber.

"I removed this one from the gun, Lieutenant. That should have left four bullets in the chamber. It is a standard six-shot."

"Yes, sir, but there are only three bullets still in the chamber."

"Fischer must have gotten a second shot off at the same moment I shot him," the Brigadier mused. "Damned good thing that he obviously missed. Jones wouldn't have stood a chance. That extra bullet must be around here somewhere, Lieutenant. Have your men search the area."

The Lieutenant left to give the order to his men, leaving the Brigadier to stand there in silence, marvelling at the close call they'd had.

* * *

Ianto grimaced as he removed his clothing one piece at a time in the bathroom that adjoined his and Jack's room. Jack was dozing again, and Toshiko had offered to sit with him whilst Ianto had a quick shower and changed his blood-stained clothes. He hadn't cared at the time, but now that the situation had been dealt with and the danger was past, he couldn't help but lament the ruined suit.

"Damn you, Fischer," he muttered to himself as he undid his pants, and then pulled his bloodied shirt off.

The sound of something landing on the floor with a metallic clatter drew his attention, and Ianto scanned the floor until he spotted something that sent a chill through him. On the floor at his feet was a single bullet. His heart pounding, Ianto crouched down and picked it up in trembling fingers for a closer examination. It was definitely one of the bullets from Fischer's gun. The carved tip gave it away in an instant. How, though, had a single bullet managed to find its way inside his shirt?

Wondering suddenly whether he'd actually been grazed by the bullet, and not noticed it in all the panic and excitement, Ianto twisted around a little in an effort to look at himself. He had not a mark on him, though. Not a bruise, or even a scratch. He hadn't been shot, then.

Bullet still clutched in one hand, he shook his head and picked up his shirt, intending to toss it in the disposal bin in the corner of the bathroom. He was halfway across the floor when he found the hole. Feeling light-headed all of a sudden, Ianto spread the shirt out to reveal a small hole in the material low down on the right side of the shirt. It was a bullet hole, and he didn't need to compare the bullet in his hand to the hole in the shirt in order to confirm it.

His mind reeled as he tried desperately to come to some logical conclusion. He had a bullet hole in his shirt, and a bullet that had apparently been caught within his clothing.

Ianto shut his eyes against the sudden threat of a serious headache. He didn't understand how the velocity of the bullet had not simply caused it to pass clean through his clothes and keep going, and he had no intention of raising the subject with anyone else – especially Jack. If his somewhat overprotective lover knew what a close call he'd had today, Ianto knew it would be weeks before Jack would let him out of the Hub to do so much as a lunch run.

Feeling a little bit sick, Ianto dropped the bullet along with the shirt into the disposal bin, and murmured a soft plea to the TARDIS to effectively dispose of both items. He was never going to tell Jack just how close he'd come to dying today, and he could only hope that his nightmares didn't give it away for him.

* * *

_Fin._


End file.
